Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to... doo-dads!

What's a doo-dad, you ask?

A doo-dad is a promotional item, usually customized, that we send out to our spheres of influence with the goal of reminding them that we exist and are still selling real estate. With the ultimate goal, of course, being that they remember to think of us when it comes time to make a real estate hiring or referring decision. 

I believe there are three categories of doo-dads.

The first is the silly, cheesy trinket-y type that does absolutely nothing to promote the professionalism of the agent whose name is featured on it. Personalized fly-swatters might be a good example.

The second category is the ho-hum, run-of-the-mill doo-dad that isn't silly or cheesy, but isn't really special, either. Maybe the recipient will hold onto it; maybe he won't. Nothing wrong with this category of doo-dad, but there's not all that much right about it, either.

The third category is, you guessed it, the Soulful Doo-Dad.

And that's the topic of our next SWS Teleseminar show. Gina Dotson from the House of Magnets will join me to talk about some creative promotional items you can customize and send out this holiday season - or any other time, of course. While we'll be talking about items that Gina's company sells, we'll leave the sales-pitch in the car and let you decide if any of her products are of interest to you. I've used the House of Magnets for all my own doo-dads over the last few years and they're great to work with.

Join us?

THE DETAILS
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
Time: 4:00pm Pacific / 5:00 pm Mountain / 6:00 pm Central / 7:00 pm Eastern
Duration: 60 - 90 minutes
Equipment Needed: Nothing fancy - just a phone and/or computer
Cost: Free, but you must register, HERE

REGISTER FOR THE FREE SHOW HERE   

The Prospecting with Soul (PWS) Workshop kicks off Monday, September 13th. In case you haven't heard of it, it's a six-week group workshop where agents who want to Sell with Soul will gather together online and venture out into the world to Prospect with, um, Soul. The goal? To fill up those pipelines for 2011 and beyond using techniques and strategies that don't cost a fortune, embarrass you or make you feel icky.

I've been getting some good questions about the Workshop from already-registered participants as well as from folks who haven't-yet-registered. Figured it made sense to answer them.

Sooo...

"What if I can't make all the live tele-meetings? Can I listen to them later?" Yes. All tele-meetings will be recorded and made available to participants within 24 hours. I really don't expect anyone to attend all the sessions live - after all - you have real estate to sell and clients to care for!

"I'll be on vacation for a week during the program. Will I get too far behind?" Nope. The Prospecting with Soul Workshop is not a bootcamp-style program. Your daily assignments, for the most part, aren't labor-intensive and only a few build on earlier ones. So, if you're gone a week, you'll miss five assignments (Monday - Friday). You can do the assignments the following week, or wait til the end of the Workshop and do them then. Or even ignore them if you want to. You'll be fine.

"What if I get too busy to keep up?" If you get really busy during the Workshop (which is what always seems to happen, right?), well, then GREAT! It was well-worth the cost to stimulate all that activity, even if you can't actually DO all the assignments until later!

"Will the PWS Workshop talk about... (open houses, floor time, web leads, websites, expired listings, FSBO's... )?" Officially, no. While we'll touch on some of these topics, we'll focus on the six categories described in the promotional material (see here). However, since there are over 100 participants (so far), conversations about other prospecting avenues will be welcomed and encouraged on the Prospecting with Soul private board!

"I hate social media! Do I HAVE to do those assignments?" Nope. You can pick and choose among the assignments and disregard any that don't suit your personality or business model. And I promise, you don't have to Facebook, Twitter or Link-In to be a successful real estate agent.

"I did the Savvy Prospector program - is there any reason to do PWS?" Did you enjoy Savvy? (Okay, I know some of it is downright tedious, but overall, did you get something from it?). If so, you'll love PWS. It's sort of a Savvy-Lite, with new material and different assignments. PWS does NOT get into big projects the way Savvy does; it's a day-to-day activity-based program to help you get out there in the world confidently generating business for yourself.

"I'm brand new, should I do PWS?" Probably not. If you're fresh off the turnip truck (I say that with love), you have other things to do right now besides prospect for business. You need to focus on Learning Your Stuff before you go out into the world professing to Know Your Stuff. If you want to do "Something" with Soul - take a look at the SWS School for Rookies which takes you day-by-day through the first 30 days of your new career.

"Is it Too Late to Sign up for PWS?" Almost, but not quite. You have until Sunday, September 12^th to get in the door. I'd rather you not put it off til the last minute because there is some behind-the-scenes processing that needs to be done before you're totally "processed," but I'm up to the task!

Any other questions I can answer? Just ask. If you haven't yet joined the PWS Workshop, you can do that here. Would love to have you with us!

Prospecting with Soul... that's the name of a six-week Workshop I'm hosting that kicks off September 13th and goes through the end of October. And yes, there's a cost to participate and I suppose by writing this blog, I'm hoping you'll be interested enough in the Workshop that you'll consider participating. But that's totally up to you (well, duh, Jennifer, of course it is) - I won't be pushing or pitching it on you; if it's right for you, you'll know it.

Anyway, what do I mean by "Prospecting with Soul?"

Those who know me know that I'm not an airy-fairy, new-agey, karma-obsessed kinda gal. I'm actually pretty practical, so when I talk about doing Anything with "Soul" I'm not referring to anything, well, airy-fairy, new-agey or karma-obsessed!

The back cover of my book defines SELL with Soul as:"To enjoy a wildly successful career selling real estate by treating clients and prospects respectfully, as you yourself would like to be treated."

So then, what does it mean to PROSPECT with Soul?

It's quite simple. Basically, you don't subject your audience to a sales-pitch that would irritate you if you were the audience. You don't use prospecting strategies that wouldn't work on you, or that make you feel icky. When you Prospect with Soul, you come from a position of confidence drawn from the conviction that you are the Best Thing that Could Ever Happen to this Prospect.

When you Prospect with Soul, you never feel icky. You don't worry that your audience is dreading or is irritated by your approach. You never feel the need to apologize for your prospecting activities.

Which, I guess, probably makes it clear what I mean by Prospecting withOUT Soul. When you Prospect withOUT Soul, you do unto others stuff that would annoy you if done unto you. You ignore your gut when it tells you you're doing something icky. You have to psyche yourself up every day as you head into your blocked-off prospecting time because you absolutely dread it. You're starting to suspect that your audience (particularly your precious sphere of influence) is getting tired of you.

Most real estate training programs encourage, even celebrate Prospecting withOUT Soul. They tell us to suck it up, just do it and assure us that we'll get used to, even enjoy, all the rejection we'll encounter. They push us to venture way out of our comfort zones with dire warnings that if we refuse, we'll fail miserably.

But it doesn't have to be that way. You can prospect for business using strategies that feel good, feel right and, um, WORK.

And that's what the Prospecting with Soul Workshop is all about.

If you've gotten this far on today's blog, you're probably feeling one of two emotions:

One, you're certain I'm full of krap and are rolling your eyes in disbelief that it's possible to effectively prospect without annoying people - after all - annoying people is an integral part of the game.

Or two, you know I'm right.

If you know I'm right, but want to know more, please join me on
Wednesday for a free info-seminar on the upcoming
Prospecting with Soul Workshop.

REGISTER HERE